At last the river levels come good as does the fishing

The violent storms of the winter have finally passed leaving behind damage to the countryside in terms of many uprooted trees. In one village in Somerset people were finally able to leave by car with the previous time being 64 day before. Staggering!

There has been plenty of fishing on the river at last with 6 chub being caught on most visits. All on cheese paste and bread.

One particular day fishing with Andy (you should have been here yesterday fame) I had a complete blank and this is the first time that I could remember. I almost changed that on the very last cast of the day. The rod top trembled a little and I moved the rod towards the fish by a couple feet. The rod continued to pull around which means that the chub has the bait well into it’s mouth. The strike met with a good bend in the rod, this was no chub as the rod continued to bend and thump as I slowly pulled the barbel out of the snag area. I slowly moved up the bank pulling the barbel further up into mid stream and safety. The fight was defiantly going my way. The barbel then woke up and started to pull back the rod hooped over and the clutch began giving line. Then for no reason the hooklink broke and the rod sprang back. Andy witnessed these events and commiserated with me saying it looked to be a good fish etc etc. Never mind I don’t lose many fish and it must have been the 7lb hooklink that touched something that made it break. It really was a good fish!

I returned a couple of days later with the barbel gear and boilies and paste but it didn’t put in an appearance. A mate Paddy told me that a 10lb barbel had been caught from this snag area a couple of weeks ago and that this fish was a resident of the swim. So that answers my question of how big the fish was.

Touch ledgering is such a great method when chubbing you feel that knock on the rod top and move the rod tip towards the fish where it takes more line. The bait now is well inside the chubs mouth and normally the rod continues to pull around. Then the hook is struck home and the fight starts. This works well for cheese paste and bread. Often I’ve had a knock on the rod and then nothing else. On reeling the bait back in you can see the impression of the chubs lips on the cheese paste where it had picked up the bait but on feeling the resistance dropped it. Try this and I can say you won’t fail.

Andy has been in Uganda again for his Nile perch fishing and he has caught a few perch and cat fish but not the numbers or size that he had do in the past. He seems to have had a great time though.

Cat fish

38lb semutundu
catfish

Take a look below at the contest they fished in while they were there.

My last visit to the river ended in me catching 7 chub and losing two more with one being totally my fault. The fish was near my bank and ready to be landed when I fumbled the net, the chub sought sanctuary in some vegetation close by and the hook fell out. The chub was nearer 5lbs than 4lbs.

Still the weather was warm 15c and the sun shone just like a summers day. Oh it was good to be out on the river. Andy caught about 6 chub to 4lbs 8oz and another angler had 7 chub so at last the fishing well.

Average 3lb plus chub

As the river season is nearing closure my thoughts are now concentrating on the spring bream fishing. The remainder of the cost of joining the syndicate was made and this coincided with a call from Vince who suggested we meet up for a look around and select swims. So later in March we will be doing just this. I can’t start to fish it until April 1st so I’ve plenty of time to sort out the tackle and prepare. I’m very excited about this as I’ve never fished for bream before.

Here is a short video of the season so far. This finishes at the end of March and the new one starts in April.

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